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Tampa Bay Buccaneers superstar Tom Brady is widely considered to be the greatest NFL player of all time. The quarterback's seemingly never-ending career is so great that it could be broken into three shorter Hall of Fame careers.
Despite his unmatched success, Brady has received his fair share of criticism. Over the years, many analysts have unsuccessfully predicted the quarterback's downfall, but one stands out. In 2016, ESPN analyst Max Kellerman infamously claimed that Brady's career would soon be over.
Six years and three Super Bowl rings later, the quarterback had a hilarious response to Kellerman's prediction. Brady retweeted a video of the analyst predicting his downfall and wrote:
"Ratio + I have a swimwear line now."
Why did Max Kellerman predict Tom Brady would be done soon?
Over the past seven years, Brady has won four Super Bowl rings with two different teams and has also been named the league MVP once. But it wasn't so rosy at the start of the 2016 NFL season.
The quarterback had just seen his biggest rival, Peyton Manning, retire after a Super Bowl victory with the Denver Broncos and was forced to watch the New England Patriots' first four games of the new season from the sidelines as he served a suspension for his involvement in the Deflategate saga.
With Brady sidelined, Jimmy Garoppolo, then considered Brady's heir apparent, was tasked with helping the Patriots stay competitive until the team's superstar quarterback returned in their fifth game of the campaign.
Head coach Bill Belichick was adamant that Brady would be the starter once he returned from his suspension. But analysts predicted that Garoppolo would perform well and win the job permanently, as Brady did in his second season with the team in 2001.
On ESPN's First Take, analyst Max Kellerman made the infamous prediction that the Patriots would stick with Garoppolo as the starter because Brady was finished. He said:
“Tom Brady’s just about done. It could be his next game. It could be a year from now. But he is going to fall off a cliff. Tom Brady is going to be a bum in short order.”
Kellerman's comments weren't received with warmth by fellow co-host Stephen A. Smith, who was stunned by the suggestion. Watch the entire segment below:
Since Kellerman's comments, Brady has played in four Super Bowls and won three. He threw for 5,316 passing yards in 2021, a career-high, and is returning for his 23rd NFL season. Kellerman's comments could not have aged more horribly.
